Montemitro (Slavomolisano: Mundimitar) is a small town and comune in the province of Campobasso in the Molise region of Italy, near the Trigno river.
Like Acquaviva Collecroce and San Felice del Molise, Montemitro is home to a community of Molisian Croats, most of whom speak a particular Slavomolisano dialect as well as Italian.
The province of Campobasso (Italian: provincia di Campobasso; Molisan dialect: pruìnge de Cambuàsce) is a province in the Molise region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Campobasso. It covers an area of c. 2,941 square kilometres (1,136 sq mi) and has a total population of 223,871 (2017). There are 84 comuni (sg.: comune) in the province.
The eastern part of the province is home to a small Croatian minority who speak an archaic dialect of Croatian. The Croatians reside primarily in Acquaviva Collecroce, San Felice and Montemitro.
Molise Croats (Croatian: Moliški Hrvati) or Molise Slavs (Italian: Slavo-molisani, Slavi del Molise) are a Croat community in the Molise province of Campobasso of Italy, which constitutes the majority in the three villages of Acquaviva Collecroce (Kruč), San Felice del Molise (Filić) and Montemitro (Mundimitar). There are about 1,000 active and 2,000 passive speakers of the Slavomolisano dialect. The community originated from Dalmatian refugees fleeing from the Ottoman conquests in the late 15th and 16th centuries.
Slavomolisano, also known as Molise Slavic or Molise Croatian (Croatian: moliški hrvatski; Italian: croato molisano), is a variety of Shtokavian Croatian spoken by Italian Croats in three villages – Montemitro (Mundimitar), Acquaviva Collecroce (Živavoda Kruč) and San Felice del Molise (Štifilić) – in the province of Campobasso, in the Molise Region of southern Italy. There are fewer than 1,000 active speakers, and fewer than 2,000 passive speakers.
It has been preserved since a group of Croats emigrated from Dalmatia due to the advancing Ottoman Turks. The residents of these villages speak a Shtokavian Younger Ikavian dialect with a strong Southern Chakavian adstratum. The Molise Croats consider themselves to be Slavic Italians, with South Slavic heritage and who speak a Slavic language, rather than simply ethnic Slavs or Croats. Some speakers call themselves Zlavi or Harvati and call their language simply na našo ("our language").
Acquaviva Collecroce (Slavomolisano: Živavoda Kruč or, usually, just Kruč) is a small town and comune in the province of Campobasso, in the Molise region of southern Italy, between the Biferno and Trigno rivers.
Like the smaller towns of Montemitro and San Felice del Molise, Acquaviva Collecroce is home to a community of Molisian Croats, most of whom speak a particular Slavomolisano dialect as well as Italian. There are differences in the dialects of the three towns, but they all descend from the Shtokavian-Ikavian dialect of Dalmatia. The language is considered an endangered diaspora language.
San Felice del Molise (Slavomolisano: Filić or Štifilić) is a small town and comune in the province of Campobasso in the Molise region of Italy, near the Trigno river.
Like Acquaviva Collecroce and Montemitro, San Felice del Molise is home to a community of Molisian Croats, most of whom speak the Slavomolisano dialect as well as Italian and Molisan.